What Foxes Do
by Quill of Life
Summary: So she was the fox. She'd show those stupid villagers, and then! Well, she wasn't really sure, but she was certain that she would be the last to laugh... maybe.
1. Chapter 1

The almost four year old Naruto had a decision to make, she had always sort of known that people hated her, not for any reason he could figure out, but they hated her with fervor. The sisters and the matron at the orphanage all hated her, the other kids freely bullied her without intervention, unless she fought back, in which case she was punished, finally, whenever she left the orphanage, people in the streets glared at her and randomly shouted hurtful things.

That is, until the day before, when a drunk had accidentally let it slip. She was the Kyuubi.

Most children at her age would not be mature enough to make a conscious choice, but for Naruto, growing up hated by everyone, had matured her well beyond what most children should be able to achieve. Now, however, she had to choose; on one hand, she could try to run away, but the village kept her alive for a reason, probably so she could be a ninja, or she could stick around, and make herself as non-threatening as possible.

Running away, that just didn't seem like such a good idea to her. Since she was still very much alive, and clearly not meant to know she was the Kyuubi. The only reason the village kept her around was to make her fight for them, but they obviously kept an eye on her, ready to strike her down if she ever stepped out of line. It meant that escape was impossible.

As the little girl considered her future mask, something happened that gave her a different idea.

It was storytelling, and as usual, Naruto wasn't allowed inside, but unlike usual, where she would run away to the far corner of the garden to hide her tears, today she had been so deep in thought that she didn't even notice. "…and so the ninja slayed the wolf, telling the shepherd of its sheep disguise, and hung the still hidden wolf from a tree, so that all could see that the ninja of Konoha was not so easily fooled."

That was it, slowly a vicious smirk spread across her face. She already was a wolf in sheep's clothing, or a fox in human clothing as it were, but then all of Konoha already knew, but she… if she changed her clothes. If she changed her disguise, then they wouldn't and she could be free, and if they found out, when they found out, she would maybe be invaluable enough that they wouldn't kill her. Hopefully.

This would take a lot of work, but she could do it.

The first thing she needed was a name, her gaze fell on the stone faces in the distance, and the smirk on her face grew even further. It was a cruel idea, but she liked it even more for all the things it would entail. She would steal everything from the one that had doomed her to this existence.

Her plan had taken a few weeks to get together, but soon she was ready. Apparently, the village wasn't watching her as closely as she had expected; in fact, they were downright irresponsible. Sneaking away from the orphanage provoked no response whatsoever, as far as she could tell, and after several trips she had started looking for ways out of the village undetected.

Naruto needed a disguise, something to hide two of her most prominent features. Her blonde hair, and her whisker-like markings, hair dye and make-up. Getting said articles was a bit difficult, involving a trap to distract the store clerk, a rubber chicken, and quick hands. She would also need money, enough to live on her own, again, the various stores around the village gladly donated a bit of their income, or at least that is how she chose to see it.

Then, with but a little laugh, Naruto the sheep clothing she had been forced to wear died, and Minato her own sheep's clothing was born.

* * *

Aoba sighed in boredom. It didn't do to piss off 'Kage-sama, he knew that, but he just couldn't help himself, it was just such a golden opportunity, and honestly, how often did one catch the God of Shinobi with his pants down, literally. Still, a week of gate duty, it almost wasn't worth it, _almost_.

Letting his head hit the counter, Aoba noticed a small timid figure peeking around the gate. The child looked towards the gatehouse uncertainly, almost as if some sort of cataclysm would happen. At least it meant that something different happened today, that was better than how the other six days had gone. "Hey kid, come on over here."

As the child approached, Aoba took note of the appearance, the kid looked dirty and disheveled, though the short dark red hair was distinctive, as were the blue eyes, which held the sort of steel that spoke of seeing too much, too soon. He'd recognize those eyes anywhere; he saw a much too similar pair every day in the mirror.

"So, kid, why did you travel here, to Konoha?" It really wasn't a necessary question, the answer already painfully obvious to the experienced ninja, nonetheless, formalities and such dictated he at least do a minimum of questioning. "I, the bad men came, and mom said to run to the secret spot, and then she went after dad, and I waited there for so long, but they never came, and mom said that if anything happened I should head here, since it might be safe."'

' _Bandits then._ ' Though a thought niggled in the back of his mind, the red hair, Aoba couldn't quite place it, but it somehow rang with a memory. "So, what then?" He was now crouching in front of the sobbing child, trying to coax the rest of the answer out of her. "…they wouldn't wake up, I tried, but mom and dad, they wouldn't wake up, and they said if that happened I should head here, that I'd be safe, and I could be safe if I became a ninja."

"So, kid. What's your name, and how old are you?" The child was clearly too young to be an infiltrator, but the story, something seemed off about it to Aoba, and it bugged him that he couldn't place it. Still, orders where orders, Konoha was seriously hurting for ninja, and all potentials had to be tested, to refill their ranks as quickly as possible. "…Minato, and I'm fi– almost seven!"

Aoba snorted, he could tell the kid wanted to enter the academy directly, which was fine, well he'd fudge the records, and the kid was five, he'd entered at the same age so he wasn't too worried. Then it hit him, that redheaded woman that was friends with the fourth, an Uzumaki, ' _the kid is an Uzumaki. Maybe, but it fits, the secretive parents, vary of Konoha but considers their ninja safe-ish._ '

"Alright kid, entering Konoha to join the academy is possible, if you sign on, you will have to fulfill your contract once you graduate, as a ninja, that is how we pay for the free education, but it comes with a small stipend for orphans." Aoba hoped he had glossed over the contract requirement enough that the kid wouldn't even question it, an Uzumaki even a distant one, would be invaluable.

Once Aoba had the paperwork back, he made a quick note that the kid was a potential clan child, and the academy should expedite chakra training.

* * *

To Minato it all seemed too easy; the guard became a lot more enthusiastic once he heard her name, and he practically shoved the forms down her throat to speed up her entry process. However, it didn't seem like she had been caught. At first, she had been leery when he had told her to wait for his shift to end, but nothing much happened, and another guard showed up around lunch, while the she had been put through some exercises to gauge her fitness level.

In the end, nothing came of it. The guard had introduced himself as Yamashiro Aoba, and then taken her to the administrative office, located in the Hokage tower, right next to the academy. After filing her paperwork, Aoba herded her into the academy, and introduced her to the headmaster, who gave her a quick onceover, read the papers, and nodded.

Just like that, Minato, age six and three-quarters, was a student at the upcoming fall class.

Minato had barely started her education, when her teacher had pulled her aside, at first she had thought they had somehow seen through her disguise, but it turned out to something else entirely. Apparently, in choosing her disguise, while she had gone for the red hair to look like the fox, she had inadvertently made herself look like a member of a lost clan.

If Minato really was a clan child, then unlocking her chakra and starting training early was necessary, so after the first week, a teacher pulled her aside for extracurricular lessons on using her chakra. Once the teacher was done explaining it, she was a bit concerned, the chakra of the fox should be easily recognizable, but maybe, the sealing her like this meant her chakra would appear more human, she could only hope.

Just a few hours later, and the teacher looked at her with an almost awed expression. Minato had, apparently, quite large reserves for her age, not to the point of worsts case scenarios, but enough that it was good they had done this now rather than in the second year. Besides her larger than normal reserves for an almost seven year old, her chakra was, at least to the teacher, perfectly human, and quite pleasant.

Of course, in a corner of her mind, Minato shuddered, she was almost four, and if she had followed the normal schedule, she wouldn't have unlocked her chakra, assuming the village would even let her try, for another three years. Considering the fact the teacher was showing her an advanced exercise to walk on water, and had told her to report the following day for more control exercises and an in-depth discussion of this, she wondered if any later would have made it impossible to learn proper control.

It took her only a few days to get the water walking down, though Minato still used far more chakra than necessary, but with her rapid progress impressed her teacher, even more so, the fact that she was learning in reverse order. Her next exercise was surface clinging, or commonly known as tree walking, and by the end of the first month at the academy, she had gained enough control over her chakra to try the ordinary leaf floating exercise.

Most of what was taught in the first year was basic reading and writing, along with mathematics. Added to this was plenty of physical exercise, an area where she exceled, even if she had to keep up with kids two years older. Still, there were no ninja skills in the curriculum, and while the physical part pushed them, the only thing to suggest this was a ninja academy was the fact that all the teachers wore the chuunin uniform.

When Minato had brought it up with Daikoku-sensei, he had laughed so hard that his entire body shook, while clan children often knew the answer, she was the first civilian child to ever notic, at least in his ten years of teaching. The explanation made some sense, in the end chakra was rather powerful, and not all children had what it took to be a ninja, so they were weeded out early, and either left from the grueling training and lack of 'ninja', or were transferred to the civilian school.

Still, the first year was important enough, and Minato spent most of it clinging to a wall and reading, this was the one area, where she was sorely behind her peers, and she could learn while training her control, an added bonus. Then, the first year was over, and she had the summer to herself.

Minato spent her first summer vacation working, it wasn't that she didn't have money, the stipend for orphans would cover her, and what she had liberated from stores before she transformed was untouched, but still, she would need gear when she graduated. Besides, the hard work as a groundskeeper doubled as physical training.

In the afternoon, she would make rounds past the training fields, to see if she could spot a ninja training, and possibly learn something, or at least practice suppressing her chakra around other ninja. It was during one of these trips that she encountered something interesting, the man wore an outfit like those police officers, and was slowly making hand seals, something she had only brief knowledge of, but knew were for jutsu.

The man had repeated the hand seals several times, and slow enough that Minato could remember them, though she only knew the name of the last one, Ram, Daikoku-sensei had shown it to her, to use for gathering chakra. However, as the man did the five seals, he ended up slamming his hand into the ground, and suddenly there was a small hawk under his hand. A smirk spread across her face, this was certainly a powerful technique, and she made a point to write down everything she had seen, with illustrations, for later.

By the beginning of the second year, Minato quickly skimmed through the textbooks, chakra theory, one of the new classes added to the curriculum, obviously had mentions of hand seals, and she used the illustration in the textbook to identify which ones the man in the training field had used to make a hawk appear. It was for later, but it didn't hurt too have the extra knowledge.

The second year of the academy also saw the start of actual ninja training, they were taught kata's for the Konoha Five Leaf Taijutsu Style, or academy style, as it was apparently called. The style itself focused on parrying and dodging, with only a few attacks, mainly low kicks. Again, Minato had taken her wondering to Daikoku-sensei, and again, he had been impressed that she had noticed the oddity.

In hindsight, Minato admitted, it made perfect sense, when the children graduate they will still be twelve at most, and as such, will most likely face opponents much taller than themselves for several years. Besides the taijutsu, there was also kunai and shuriken training. However, I was the extracurricular chakra control training that held most of her interest. In order to maximize her control, Daikoku-sensei had started teaching her Chakra Sensing, something that required an almost absolute awareness of her chakra.

By the third year, the students had electives to choose from, there weren't that many, but this was part of picking specialties, future medic-nin would take the advanced anatomy and biochemistry classes, while those wishing to join cryptography would have advanced mathematics. Minato was a bit torn on what to choose, she considered her options, and eventually went with classes that offered a wide usage. Kenjutsu, infiltration, and tracking.

Infiltration was an obvious choice, really, it would help, and she might learn of a way to keep her hair dark red, and her whisker marks concealed, without resorting to hair dye and make-up. Tracking was just interesting, and those missions would mostly take place outside the village, besides, she'd probably pick up some tips on how to cover her tracks in case she needed to flee.

Joining the kenjutsu class turned out to be quite a bit more difficult than she had anticipated; it was a rather popular class, and as such, it was filled with nearly every student in the year. Choosing this class had been obvious, when considering the future line of work, she'd very much prefer to have a sharp piece of steel between herself and whoever was trying to kill her.

For a whole week, some three-hundred and fifty students drilled in the exercise yard, each trying to improve, so they could impress the teacher, and trying to sabotage those around them to lessen competition. In this Minato actually excelled, as she did with most physical things, something Daikoku-sensei had noticed with her kata's, she easily learned when presented with physical training.

As it were, so did the kenjutsu teacher. Still, her tracking teacher and her infiltration teacher weren't happy that she'd missed her first lessons.

The fourth year followed in the same vein as the third, with the exception that Minato swapped infiltration for field medicine, and added fuinjutsu. Kenjutsu was a two-year course, and her tracking teacher had informed her that if she stayed on, and did well, she would be taught a few tricks at the end of the year. Besides, the tracking course really just was about repetition, an extra year would only help improve her skill, and she was liked the subject and apparently had a very good senses.

As the end of the fourth year drew close, Minato was faced with a rather disconcerting decision. The fifth and sixth years were mainly meant for reinforcing what had already been taught, and most student would apply to their desired divisions for an apprenticeship, only having a single day in the academy. Alternatively, she could stay on and graduate with the 'elite' track.

As Minato dithered over the decision, she suddenly found it was made for her. Daikoku-sensei, her otherwise staunch ally, had told her to report to the headmasters office. "Minato-san, I wish there was an easy way for me to say this, but, there isn't, your presence in class is disruptive," she looked at her teacher, with something close to hurt, but before she could give voice to her painful thoughts, he continued. "Minato-san, I had hoped that your presence would inspire the other students to excel, however, you improved so fast, and so quickly, that instead of inspiration, they saw despair."

"Oh," that was not exactly what she had expected, honestly, she hadn't interacted much with her peers, most of them weren't that interesting, the girls seemed to think this was some sort of prep course for future housewives, and the boys were, immature. "That really isn't all, you have glowing recommendations in your file from the teachers in the elective courses, and honestly, you won't be able to advance your skills much further until you make chuunin."

"Funeno-sensei," so far the headmaster had kept quiet, but he looked sternly at her teacher as continued; "I am not one for sending such young children into the wild, and I have already been forced to graduate young Uchiwa-san just recently, while his case might be different, he has a clan to support him, unlike young Minato-san."

"Yes, I understand, but truthfully, sir; unlike Uchiha-san, Minato-san displays both a maturity and thoughtfulness, the academy honestly have nothing left to teach him, what he needs is experience." The headmaster nodded, with a look of quiet contemplation. "Hmm, if you are certain Funeno-sensei, now young Minato, how do you feel about this early graduation?"

"Er… I am not sure, it is unexpected, I had hoped to have more time to physically grow, and to hone my skills, but as Daikoku-sensei pointed out, for taijutsu, I can't spar with my classmates, as they pose no challenge." Minato took a moment to collect her thought, this was either going to doom her, or send thrust her career into the clouds.

"Recent events, has given a certain… discredit, to the early graduation, and considering the options, graduating early wouldn't necessarily be in my best interest. A jounin-sensei, could as such, not deliberately, but subconsciously, try to limit my education, or worse create a rift in the team by limiting my duties." Both her teacher and the headmaster nodded gravely, Minato had brought up a rather valid point, something they should consider. "Then, do you wish to stay at the academy?"

"Perhaps, headmaster, a very, _very_ , quiet graduation, and sending me straight to the genin corps? I can take missions to pay rent, train, and mature, out of sight, and when the time comes, apply for a genin team." A large smirk spread on Daikoku's face, and mirrored by the headmaster. "That is an excellent idea, and as a genin, there is no true limit on whom you receive instruction from, or what you may be taught."

And that was that, by the end of the fourth year, Minato graduated, very quietly, with only a few witnesses. Her paperwork was handled discreetly, and her transfer into the genin corps went unnoticed, just one amongst many. She had acquired all the skills taught, her file had glowing recommendations from her teachers, and even one from the headmaster, who had been quite impressed with her thinking and reasoning.

* * *

 _An in the profile_


	2. Chapter 2

Really, Minato had lucked out, a jounin wasn't as easy to fool as a bunch of chuunin charged with the oversight of thousands of children, especially a jounin that would be dealing with her daily, and probably giving her one-on-one instruction. The next step in her career path was the chuunin promotion, and honestly, of the three types, she knew of one that wouldn't work. Field promotion, unless a war started, this would be out of the question.

However, for now, Minato had D-ranks to complete, and a genin library to visit.

D-ranks, Minato looked sadly at the list, babysitting, weeding, cleaning, painting, and catching a cat? It was obvious really, chores for young ninja to earn some pocket money, or to pay rent. She looked around the mission hall, there were a few chuunin standing around, looking for young genin to accompany them on C-rank missions, though no genin in sight.

' _Babysitting would get me in contact with those in charge of Konoha, though there is a risk of them recognizing me, catching a cat? The pay is decent, but it just screams… trap._ ' Sorting through the list, Minato thought of the trash collecting jobs, they seemed simple enough. Still, she wanted to figure out about the cat. "I'll take the trash collecting, though what's with the cat mission?"

The smirk that the chuunin at the desk gave her was answer enough for Minato; she had no desire to spend time on that. Taking her mission scroll, she set off towards the river, where she would spend hours on the mind-numbingly task of picking up trash. Just as she left the mission office, she realized she had no clue where to get the trash bags, or where to dump them after her work, so she quickly returned and asked the chuunin, much to his amusement.

Trash collecting had turned out to be even more boring than Minato had predicted, and take longer than she had expected, but at least it took place along the river. This allowed her to practice her water walking while distracted and bored, and by the early afternoon, she had stopped noticing whether she was standing on the banks or on the river entirely.

After a late lunch at a small stall, Minato headed to the genin library. It was, in word… disappointing. While the shelves had quite a few copies of each volume, there still weren't enough books to fill up the small room, leaving three of the seven bookshelves entirely bare and the rest half-empty. Again, it wasn't like she couldn't understand why, genin could leave the service after ten years of service, and half of that could be spent as inactive, this meant that genin were much more likely to return to civilian life, and take all their skills with them.

That didn't mean Minato couldn't find anything of value, in fact all the books had quite a bit of basic information recorded, and there were exercises for basic elemental transformation, and a few utilitarian elemental jutsu's. The only subject that had any extensive coverage, besides medicine, which took up half a bookshelf on its own, was the fuinjutsu section. While it contained mostly basic theory, it also had a comprehensive introduction to making storage scrolls.

This was good news for Minato, the academy course on fuinjutsu had only given her an overview of how the art functioned, not how to make her own designs, which was necessary for anything beyond basic explosive tags. The fact that she had been the only student taking the course meant she had gotten a very thorough education in the art.

' _This is much more comprehensive than it should be for genin; Konoha clearly wants more seal masters in their ranks, if they're starting them young. Same for medics._ ' With her observations made, Minato borrowed the books that interested her the most, _An_ _Introduction to Storage_ , _Elemental's of Elemental Transformation_ , and _Illustrated Illusions_.

The fuinjutsu book didn't take her long to read through, and a few days later Minato had made her first successful attempt. Dividing the week, she took on three D-ranks, where she practiced elemental transformation and spent the evenings reading, and three days of training, where she would go through kata's and practice her kawarimi, the most useful ninjutsu in her arsenal. Sundays were for light exercise and relaxing.

By the end of the first month on her own, Minato had gone through most of the library, and had some ideas of what her elemental affinity was. Fire, obviously, since she was a gargantuan fox made from it, but also wind, interestingly enough. Not that she had trouble with elemental transformation, earth came reasonably easy as well, and she had less trouble with water and lightning than she had expected.

It wasn't like Minato could do much in any of the basic exercises, the fire one called for her to burn the leaf, and she could make the tip smolder, but that was it. Genjutsu was a bit trickier, she was certain that she had the basics down, but without test subjects, ones that could accurately report what she was doing; she had no clue if it was working.

NONON

By the third month of training and doing D-ranks, which were really starting to bore her, Minato packed her storage scrolls with equipment for a longer mission, and set off to the mission office early in the morning. "Any of you want some help on a C-rank? It's my first, so not too much, okay?"

This was the easiest way, chuunins looking for missions arrived in the morning, and if they needed a few hands, they would stick around and find a genin. Arriving early meant Minato had more options of missions since most genin didn't show until late morning. "Sure kid, I'll take you along, it's just a mail run to a few of the border stations, super boring stuff, I hope you're a good conversationalist."

"So, what's your name kid?" The silver haired chuunin that had introduced himself as Mizuki asked, after they had gone over her supplies. "Minato, no last name, yet."

"Manito, that's a heavy name in this village, any ninja village really. At least you're not a blonde. So, you know how to take the ninja highway?" Nodding quickly, Mizuki and Minato took off to the treetops, and headed north, towards their first stop. Setting the pace, with Mizuki easily keeping up, they ran until lunch where they stopped at a river, where her commander taught her the first trick.

"A fishing net really makes life easy, no trapping' small game, no waiting for fish to bite." Minato vowed to add a net to her pack, though she had ration bars packed, and enough to last her a month, they tasted like wet cardboard with a texture like mush, but just adding a bit of fresh fish and the experience became a lot better. "This is probably the most important tip ever, thanks, Mizuki-san."

"Glad to be of service, kid. Besides, you're keeping up well, are you tired in any way?" Minato quickly shook her head. "No, I have a lot of chakra, so to train my control, the teachers at the academy showed me every control exercise available, including the basic muscle reinforcement, besides, look."

Minato quickly flew through the seals of the bunshin, creating a single clone of herself, a clone that looked rather dead as it flopped in the wind. "Crap, still too much. I can make two now, but the first time I tried any less than thirty and they came out like this."

"That is a hell of a lot of chakra kid, you're going to be a big name in the future, might even make Hokage, if you're interested." Minato ducked her head, to hide her embarrassment with muttered thanks. "Now that we've had lunch, let me properly brief you on mail runs."

"First thing, kid. A mail run is very common, they are daily, and usually contain personal letters, however, sometimes orders and new patrol schedules are included, and on very rare occasions, they include intelligence from spies. We aren't told, so no one but the big-wigs know, however, it also means that all mail runs have a chance of being intercepted by enemy ninja, after all, we could be carrying anything from porn to battle plans against Iwa."

"So, a generally low risk mission, but if it does go wrong, it goes majorly wrong." Mizuki gave her a firm nod in confirmation. "This is also the downside of mail runs, since we don't know what we're carrying, if we encounter enemy ninja, we run. _Fast_. On that note, fore the afternoon, set a sprint pace, I want to see how well you'd do in such circumstances, for motivation, I guess I'll chuck kunai at you if you slow down."

Mizuki didn't give her any warning as he threw a kunai at her, ad Minato took off at her fastest pace, running from the madly cackling chuunin as fast as her short legs could take her. "Keep on running and this might be the fastest mail run in years!"

More kunai passed her head and Minato found a bit more speed in her body. They continued north, with Mizuki adjusting their course by chucking kunai to her left or right when she needed to adjust her direction. It wasn't until early evening that the sadistic chuunin allowed her to slow down, and they returned to a more leisurely pace.

They were five days out of Konoha, when Mizuki changed their sleeping routine. "Since we might be carrying important documents, sleeping in the wilderness means taking watch, truthfully, any situation calls for it, but this close to the border it gets dangerous. With just two of us, we'll take three hours of sleep each, then move again, once we reach the border station, we'll take a long sleep." Before Minato could unseal her tent, Mizuki stopped her. "We should consider this hostile territory, so no fire at night, and try roughing it on the ground, its's better that way."

Three hours later, and Minato had watch, it came with the realization, that D-ranks were infinitely more interesting. At least Mizuki had woken her up exactly between sleep cycles leaving her somewhat rested, though the chuunin was much better conditioned, and woke up after a single cycle on his own.

"Since we're nearing the border, we won't go at such a heavy pace, as the risk of encountering enemies goes up. Even then, with your speed, we should make it to the first border station by early evening." With that, Mizuki took off, and Minato followed behind, the pace was quick, but not as fast as she had gone the day before.

By late afternoon Minato and Mizuki reached the first border station. It wasn't exactly what she had expected; she had pictured something like a small castle brimming with ninja, not a small log cabin with a short watchtower attached. "Yeah, not what you expected. This is what border stations look like, most of the ninja 'here', patrol the area between stations, and only stop for a resupply. It is the most boring job a ninja could ever get, avoid it like the plague."

After a good night's rest, Mizuki showed her a map, pointing out the next stations on the route, so Minato would knew where to run if they encountered enemy ninja. After a solid breakfast, they set a hard pace, to only spent two nights between border stations, since this was a mail run, there was no need to spend time looking for tracks or encroaching ninja, though Mizuki told her to keep her senses sharp.

After two weeks of utterly boring running while trying to keep her senses sharp, Minato had decided that mail runs wasn't really something she liked all that much. It was boring for one, and exhausting to keep checking for enemies that weren't there. "Kid, since we're close, want to see the Valley of the End?"

"Yeah!" Minato had heard of it, in history class. Most of it was how the first Hokage had battled Madara Uchiha, but what interested her even more was how Madara, supposedly had summoned her to fight for him, and her very presence had altered an otherwise insignificant valley into a massive gorge with a giant waterfall. Of course, to her it was to see what she could really do, there wasn't much evidence of her assault on Konoha left after all.

"It's another two days travel from here, and we're near the border so it's still hostile territory, and there won't be any border stations to sleep at, so it'll be a long way home." Minato gave the chuunin a big grin and set off towards the Valley, leaving Mizuki to catch up.

A hand suddenly covered her mouth, waking her from her sleep. Mizuki had done this a few times already, getting her used to waking up suddenly, and Minato sharpened her senses, listening for any trouble. In the distance she heard a light creaking noise, like weight being added to a branch. Her heartrate sped up, and her eyes widened, unlike before, where Mizuki had quickly told her to stand down, this time he gave her a sharp look.

Calming down, Mizuki gave the hand signs for enemy, return, Konoha, and stealth. Minato nodded, they were still carrying return mail, so the mission was still on, and they were nowhere near equipped for dealing with enemy ninja.

As quietly as they could, they made their way south heading straight for the village, hoping to avoid a fight. Even as they moved, they could hear the ninja looking for them. Even with her decent stealth ability, they didn't get far before the ninja found them, and Mizuki gave the signal to take off at top speed.

As Mizuki had said, in this situation, all they could do was run, and while she was quite fast for a genin, her lack of sleep and being woken in the middle of her nap meant that she wasn't in top condition. Still, for two hours, they ran as fast as they could barely managing to keep ahead of the enemy ninja. However, Minato was slowly starting to lag behind, and it almost seemed as if Mizuki was moving at an even faster pace than before.

Her heart was beating a mile a minute, and Minato could feel the enemy ninja right behind her slowly closing the distance. Then the weapons started flying. If it hadn't been for Mizukis sadistic training methods, she wouldn't have noticed the sound of kunai approaching from behind. More weapons quickly followed the first, and she noticed they were mostly aimed at her legs. She hoped it meant the enemy was equally exhausted, and were trying to slow her down.

Another kunai whipped past her, aimed at her body, apparently, the enemy had given up on incapacitating her, and was now aiming to kill. Minato swallowed thickly, before it had all been academic, yes there was danger, but it had been sort of distant and strangely subdued, now there were three enemy ninja trying their hardest to kill her.

More weapons came her way, and one of them nicked her shoulder, sending a burning sensation through her arm, and causing her to miss the branch. Tumbling through the forest, Minato saw the enemy closing in on her position sending a hail of shuriken towards her. Without a way to change her course, she closed her eyes and waited for the impact.

As each shuriken hit her body, Minato let out a pained scream. She had been hurt before, and cut several times in kenjutsu class, but the shuriken felt like they were burning her body. With the pain through her body, she fell straight to the ground, landing with a dull thud.

Her entire body hurt as Minato tried to push off the ground, only tumble gracelessly down into the mud, behind her she could hear shouts, and then a soft thud as someone landed nearby. After what felt like hours, she slowly opened her eyes, and saw the head of someone, someone that was missing the rest of their body; and then everything exploded.

For a brief second, Minato wondered what had happened, she couldn't hear anything, and her left eye was blinded from the heat and light of the explosion. Mizuki landed in a crouch next to her, and as relief flooded her body, her consciousness faded.

* * *

Blackness, it was emptiness, and in the hollow world, there was nothing. Pain, it was the first conscious thought she had, everything hurt. Slowly the vast nothingness receded, and the pain became unbearable, causing her to groan even as her throat resisted. Still, she couldn't see, trying to open her eyes, she only saw blackness, nor could her ears detect even the faint sound of her heart.

Memories returned, and with them a sense of self, she was Minato, she was the Kyuubi, she was on a mission, she was running from enemy ninja, then there was an explosion, and then… Mizuki. ' _Had they made it_?' She wasn't sure, she couldn't remember, maybe she had been captured, maybe Mizuki had thought her dead.

Carefully Minato tested her body, her legs weren't hurting as much, just a dull ache from running too much, same with her arms. Though her back was sore and her head throbbed painfully, her training helped her, and she slowly moved her arms to check, and to her relief she wasn't bound. It meant that she had been left for dead, or Mizuki had saved her.

A hand helped her, as Minato tried to sit up, and as she let out another pitiful groan, she felt a cup pressed to her lips. Just a single sip caused her to cough, but she quickly drank more water, and the relief of her parched throat causing her to moan in pleasure.

Then they were on the move again, at first she hadn't been sure where she was, or who was carrying her, but after indicating that she was deaf, whoever was with her, had guided her hand to the Konoha forehead protector, kept in a bandana style, mark forward, with near shoulder length hair. Even blind and deaf, she recognized the distinctive feel of Mizuki, and she relaxed.

Even with Minato resting on Mizuki's back he ran at top speed for what seemed to be most of the night. She couldn't be sure as her eyes were still covered, but by the second day she could hear again, and she spoke up as they settled down for a quick nap. "I can take guard duty, my right eye is fine, and I can hear again."

"Thanks chibi, I've been going straight for about four days now, we're close to Konoha patrols, and I think we got all of them, but we shouldn't rest until we're inside the village." Minato retied the bandages around her eyes as Mizuki spoke. "What happened?"

"I ambushed them, you were just fast enough they couldn't act, but too slow to run away, so I went ahead and set up an ambush, ninja-wire between the trees took the head of the leader when you ran under it, and explosive tags, lots of explosive tags." That explained her last memories, she was sure she had seen the head of an enemy, a head without a body. Mizuki grinned as he continued. "You being a chibi and all meant that the wire was too high up for you to get hit, while low enough to take a head. Besides, I expect you to make some replacement tags for me, those things are bloody expensive."

" _Sure thing Mizuki-san, I'll whip up a few for you when we get back_." Minato kept her voice low as the chuunin drifted off. Her wounds were healing quickly now that she was awake, and could actively circulate her chakra, she would be back to one hundred percent when Mizuki woke up. Besides, the guy looked dead on his feet, and she knew she wasn't as light as the large fuma shuriken he had carried on their way out.

Two days later, and a pair of worn out shinobi entered the mission office. "Debriefing will be with someone from the intelligence division. This is standard procedure if you encounter ninja from other villages, but not for rogue ninja, in those cases the mission leader can make such a call if they feel it is warranted."

"So we aren't sure if they were rouges going for a stroll, or from an enemy village gathering intelligence, thus the reporting?" Mizuki nodded at her response, and they entered a small office, where a chuunin in a grey uniform sat at the desk. "That would be the case for this mission, if it wasn't for the fact that we were handling two missions… Chuunin Mizuki 011141, Genin Minato 012389, reporting on mission 10C-4396 and mission 68B-7930."

"So I was a what? Smokescreen?" Minato grumbled after the debrief. He C-rank had been nothing but a cover to get Mizuki to the border where he met up with an informant and picked up some documents, but she wondered why he had taken her along for that. "Yeah, I had hoped that the enemy would think we were a normal mail run in the vicinity, and leave us alone, but well, shit happens."

"Truthfully, I should have gone with a team of chuunin, but we would have been obvious. Then I spotted this fresh little genin and thought, hey maybe no one will think twice about a bog-standard mail run, so bad luck, but on the flip side, you got a B-rank on your first mission out of the village, and the pay as well. Still owe me some explosive tags though." Mizuki chuckled at her annoyed expression, which under no circumstances looked like a pout. At least the pay was massive, 55,000 ryo each after taxes, now she could afford a proper sword rather than the cheap training one from the academy.

* * *

 _AN in the profile  
_


	3. Chapter 3

After her disastrous introduction to higher-ranking missions, Minato had returned to D-ranks for a whole week, before she even felt remotely ready to tackle another C-rank. The first step, though, had been to acquire some body armor, she really had wanted a better sword, but the truth was, that her cheap academy one, was good enough and the only proper step up would be a chakra conducting blade that cost ten times more than what she had. Besides, she needed chuunin clearance to buy the weapon, and to learn the techniques involved in using such a weapon.

This left Minato with more available money than she needed, and instead of getting a better sword, she started looking for armor. Better protection would have helped on her mission; she would probably have cleared the blast range if the shuriken hadn't penetrated her skin. Thus, she decided to spend a day shopping.

Besides stocking up on dark blue ninja grade shirts and pants, Minato also found a haori made from a dark red fabric with a simple black flames at the bottom, it just screamed nine-tailed demon fox of fire, so she quickly added it to her pile. For her armor, she bought a basic leather and mail chest piece, much like what she had seen the ANBU wear, except hers was a black. Another problem was applying make-up in the field, so she added a fabric half-facemask to her purchases; it even had the added benefit of protecting her sensitive nose.

After having spent a few days getting used to her new gear, Minato headed back to the mission office early in the morning, hoping to pick up a C-rank, when she heard something that derailed her plans. "…dammit, why'd the idiot have to go and get himself injured today, and just when the chuunin exams are held here in Konoha!"

The voice was accompanied by several agreeing dog yips, and Minato wondered for a moment how she could tell that, but really, being a canine, even one with nine tails and made from fire, she should be able to understand a distant relative, at least partially. "Hana, calm down. This isn't a sprint, you will get to be chuunin in due time, _troublesome girl_. Besides, it isn't like there are competent available genin hanging around the mission office or anything."

That was something interesting, Minato had considered the ways to make chuunin, and while learning under a jounin-sensei would be good, she couldn't just pass up a chance like this. Taking a quick look at the group, she saw a jounin leading a girl with several dogs, and a boy with pale eyes. "Umm… actually, sir…"

"… _troublesome_ …" The jounin managed to utter just that word, and his genin seemed to take it as open invitation and pounced on her. Before Minato could even react, the girl with the dogs was holding her down, while the ankle biters were, biting her ankles. "…kid, you're a genin corps right? Show me you can keep up with these two, and the three of you are going to the exams."

"I'm Hana, the little ones are the Haimaru brothers, the stick-in-the-mud is Kou, and that's Suzaku-sensei, the laziest jounin in Konoha! He got promoted because Hokage-sama found him sleeping in archives." The girl laughed at her sensei's groan, and Minato wondered what was up with the team, Kou seemed to be staring intently at her. "Minato, I just graduated three months ago, though I have done a C-rank, and accidently a B-rank, which had me running from ninja for three hours straight."

"I like this one sensei, can we keep her, she's housebroken and everything!" Although the dogs had let go of her, the Hana still held her tightly. "Well… Kou, your thoughts?"

"I think Minato-san graduated along with our class. At least there was another person at the exams, someone with large chakra reserves." Minato nodded. "Yeah, I didn't really want to graduate that early, but the teachers had run out of material, and it was an opportunity to further my studies with the genin library instead. I hadn't actually planned on making chuunin for at least another year, but opportunity, again. Besides, the genin library sucks, unless you want to be a medic-nin."

"Cautious, but takes opportunities when presented, let's head to training ground seven and test your skills." With his piece said, the jounin leisurely strolled towards the training grounds, at around the pace of a geriatric man with a broken hip. Minato raised an eyebrow at the sight, it seemed almost impossible to move that slowly, but the sighs from Hana and Kou, told him that this was normal.

* * *

"That's enough kid, come here and let's talk." The jounin had been sitting under a tree, while Minato ran laps, tossed weapons, and used her limited ninjutsu. As she sat down in front of the jounin, he quickly whipped out a file, from… somewhere. "Minato, ten, female, genin, 012389. Glowing reports from the academy, graduated with a hundred out of a hundred on every test, noted for extreme chakra reserves, transferred directly into the genin corps, without being shown to potential jounin."

"Yes, with the most recent early graduation being more politically motivated, I didn't want to risk a jounin babying me, or having teammates much older than me, either would be detrimental to teamwork." The jounin nodded at her words. "That is very perceptive of you, well, you have what it takes to be a proper genin, and even a chuunin, though if you pass the exams you should still wait a year or two before jumping in on the B-ranks, they're much more dangerous."

"Yeah, but I am out of material from the genin library, except boring stuff." The jounin gave a commiserating nod, "it is… pathetic. Well, we'll do some training and D-ranks together, and if you fit in on the team I'll send the three of you off to the chuunin exams."

Working with Hana was a lot of fun for Minato, the girl was enthusiastic, and her three ninken were cute. Kou, on the other hand, was a stick-in-the-mud, uptight, and utterly annoying, though he seemed to respect her skill, as she could hold her on in their spars. By the fourth day, Suzaku-sensei had confirmed their application to the chuunin exams, and her genjutsu abilities had grown tremendously as she now had training partners.

"You took tracking? Are you any good?" They had been done with their daily training and integrating her in the team was coming along nicely. Kou too, gave a minute twitch of his eyebrow, on his otherwise stoic face as a subtle indication of interest. "After two years my teacher said my senses were almost on par with an Inuzuka, she was quite impressed, taught me a few secret techniques to enhance my senses as well."

"Wow, that's pretty awesome, was your teacher from my clan?" Minato quickly nodded. "Yeah, her name was… Tsume, I think. Kinda scary at first, but super nice once you got over all the growling and barking and wetting yourself."

"Wow, mom taught you? For two years? And you're alive?" Suddenly Hana got a strange look in her eyes, "…you _are_ alive, right?" Minato just rolled her eyes.

* * *

The haphazardly renamed Team 7-A, stood in front of the academy, their original member, an civilian boy with very little skill in anything, was still in the hospital, and from what Minato could understand, it might be for the best if stayed there for the remainder of his career.

"Ladies, shall we?" With a team suddenly composed of three very competent individuals, the prickly Hyuuga boy had mellowed out, and even started babying Minato, much to her annoyance. Still, it made teamwork a breeze, they all had their abilities, and they could work well together, perhaps, if they all made chuunin, they could work as a team in the future, the prospect enticed all three of them. Hana quickly added her own comment, met with eye rolling from the two. "Yeah! Watch out world, Team 7 dash A is coming!"

The classroom had a tense atmosphere, just shy of a hundred genin each trying to emit bloodlust certainly felt awful, though for Minato it was no more than a spring breeze compared to what she'd felt on her first C and B-rank missions. Before Hana could do something foolish and draw unwanted attention to them, she grabbed the girls hand and led her to a quiet corner.

Holding back her laughter turned out to be the hardest part of the first exam, at least as far as Minato was concerned. Ten questions, cheating is encouraged, and you just need one correct answer to pass, the questions were certainly tough, a genin wouldn't be able to answer them fresh out of the academy, though any chuunin should be able to get a few right.

"Maggots! It is time for the tenth question! There is a new rule for this question, if you stay and take the question your teammates lose their chance to compete at the exams, permanently. Get it wrong, and you lose your chance at taking the exams ever again as well." This was actually more difficult than Minato had expected, if she hadn't liked Hana and Kou, she would probably have stayed, even thigh there was something fishy about it. Either way, that was neither here nor there, and she quickly left the classroom behind.

"…ahh, too bad. I like you guys too much to do something like to you, even though we've only known each other for a week." Minato gave a big sigh, it was a bit of a disappointing end, but then, she had made some good friends, which was really worth more than the promotion. "Yeah, sucky test, throw your friends under a wagon on a maybe, or just bail out. Besides, I want to be a veterinarian and medic-nin, most of the stuff I need is in the genin library and with a recommendation from Suzaku-sensei I can get in to the med-program. So there is no hurry for me."

"Same, my rank in the Konoha forces doesn't matter as far our clan techniques are concerned, I'll learn them when my skill is sufficient, no earlier and no later." Kou added his own thoughts to the situation, and Minato nodded along. "Yeah, I know. I have years, before I'm even at the ordinary graduation age, and I'm picking up on my genjutsu and elemental transformation on my own, they'll take time, and being a genin is probably better I terms of training time."

Just as team 7-A were leaving the academy the burly looking exam proctor pulled them into a classroom. "Congratulations maggots, you have passed the first exam. Not sacrificing your comrades on a maybe, was the correct answer, now wait here with the other winners."

In the end, six teams passed. Two from Konoha, and one each from Ame, Kiri, Tani, and Kumo. They were standing in front of a large fenced off area, with plenty of warning signs. A small stand held the proctor for the second part. A man that Minato thought looked vaguely familiar. "So, six teams huh… not an impressive showing this year. Anyway, on with the show! My name is Aoba, I'll be your proctor for this phase of the exam, now here are the rules…"

Half an hour later and team 7-A was standing in front of gate forty-four. "So get a pair scroll, high-tail it to the tower, don't peek? Did I miss anything?"

"Nah, you got it in one, Minato-san." Kou deadpanned. Hana was still shaking slightly, and her three ninken were looking a bit more green than grey. "You guys! Can't you hear what's in that forest? It's a deathtrap; literally I can smell death coming from the place!"

"Chill, Hana, we'll make good time, besides, we have some competition to knock out, and we're a tracker team, filled with combat specialists, if we can't survive a stroll through a forest, we have no business being chuunin." Her attempt at bolstering Hana's confidence would have gone a lot better if she hadn't sounded like such a scared little girl, this forest reminded her too much of running from enemy ninja.

Between Kou's Byakugan and the five available super noses, team 7-A quickly found their first target, the Kumo team. With a quick rush attack, they had the team captured and tied up in seconds, the Hyuuga's gentle fist making it an easy endeavor. "See, easy as pie, now where is their scroll… ah! dammit, Kou! It's an earth scroll!"

"Sorry, I was certain it was the heaven scroll…" Minato narrowed her eyes at their teammate, she knew it was bullshit, but something made him very pissy about Kumo. Something personal, so she decided not to enquire further. "Fine, where's our next target?"

It took them eight hours to reach the next team, but by early nightfall, the Kiri team was well within the senses of all members of team 7-A, or at least they should have been, but the chakra laden mist blocked Kou's enhanced sight. This left him at a disadvantage, as he had to rely on his ordinary hearing, " _remind me to train my other senses once this is over._ " With that, Team 7-A spread out and entered the mist, heading for the sound of sleeping ninja.

It seemed too easy. That was Minato's first clue, the enemy was apparently sleeping, though she couldn't quite tell if it was two or three of them. Really, the mist should have tipped them off, it was a ninjutsu, and required a constant supply of chakra, though thin it provided more than enough cover at night.

They hadn't even taken a second step, when the sound of sleeping disappeared, and the area went quiet. Still, the other team underestimated them, thinking them helpless in their trap. Though quiet, Minato easily heard the sound of approaching footsteps, then a swirl in the mist, and she quickly dodged the kunai aimed at her throat, again thanking the sadistic Mizuki-teme.

"Bloodline users! Kill them!" The shout came from where Kou would be, and it got Minato nervous, she wondered why they hated bloodlines. Still, she had no time to ponder, as a figure burst from mist, holding a kunai ready to stab her. "DIE BLOODLINE BASTARD!"

For a moment, the world froze, and all Minato could see was the snarling expression on the Kiri ninja, an expression that left her in no doubt about his intentions. She was going to die. The ninja was planning to kill her, unless she did something. There was only one appropriate response. With a single fluid motion, Minato drew the short blade from her back and dragged the tip across her opponent's throat.

The world returned to normal, and Minato stared at the strange sight in front her. The guy was clutching his throat, trying to stem the red liquid leaving his throat. In the distance, she could hear the muffled sound of kunai clashing, shouts of anger, and yipping of dogs. Still, she couldn't take her eyes off the guy in front of her, he was trying to speak, and looked at her with such hatred that it sent chills down her spine. A hatred that reminded her of a time before the academy, of a time where she wasn't herself, a time when she… "MINATO!"

A hand roughly shook her from her thoughts, and Minato regained her focus, around her, everything was quiet, the guy was lying on the ground, nonliving. Hana was next to her, hands firmly clasped on her shoulders, shaking her. "…are you hurt?"

No, she wasn't hurt, she was fine, she hadn't even been touched, there was nothing. A slap across her face, brought Minato from her stupor. "Mina-chan, are you hurt anywhere?" She shook her head no, and Kou stepped in, forcing her to look at him rather than the nonliving person on the ground. "Was this your first kill?"

The words jarred her enough, and the strange cotton-like sensation in her mind disappeared. " _…yeah… I- I killed him, I just and then he was there bleeding and he was dead…_ " Her voice was hoarse, barely a whisper, and felt like she had been screaming, but she hadn't, she was sure she hadn't. Hana gently wrapped her arms around her, hugging her, and Minato relaxed.

"Let's head to the tower, other teams have heard the fighting and are heading here." At Kou's words, they set off, the boy guiding them directly to the tower, and to safety and a bed. That was all Minato could think about, a bed, and a shower, she needed a shower, to wash of the filth, she felt dirty.

* * *

It had taken most of the second day to bring her out of her depression, but the stoic and calm Hyuuga and the warm and fuzzy Inuzuka easily managed it together, never leaving her alone, but giving her quiet. By the morning of the third day, she was back to normal, or as close to normal as she would ever get. "Does it get any better?"

"Not really, it sucks, but with time, it gets easier to handle, easier to deal with. You get used to it, this is my third kill, it was easier, the guy wanted to kill me so badly, leaving me with no other option than to do my best, and which killed him." Beside her, Hana nodded at the words, then added her own. "To protect your king, you sometimes have to strike at the enemy's. The king, what you would die for, and for those that would die for you, to protect them, you kill. Sensei's words, I thought them more fitting than the Inuzuka one's."

"What do the Inuzuka's say?" Minato looked at the girl expectantly. The words had been good, but they lacked something, they didn't quite, fit.

"Everything for the pack." They fit.

"Everything for the pack." Minato parroted, the words, they fir her, she liked them, they were right, they felt true. Everything for the pack, she wasn't sure what her pack was, but Hana and Kou, they were something. She wasn't sure what yet, but maybe that is what pack should feel like, hopefully something like it. Taking a deep breath, she felt the stress finally leave her body; she was a bit more broken, but it would heal with time.

By the fifth day, Team 7-A was going a bit stir crazy, they couldn't leave the tower, and they couldn't train properly, there was no entertainment, nor was their much in the way of food, unless you counted the various ration bars. Mush with curry, mush with pepper, mush with sugar, mush with something Minato couldn't identify, but that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

By the fifth day, the surviving teams were called down to the assembly hall, where the Hokage, and the respective jounin-sensei's waited for them. Just two teams had passed, Team 7-A had forgotten all about the extra earth scroll, but it was obvious that with that, there could only be one other successful team.

* * *

Letting his gaze sweep across the room, Hiruzen took note of the remaining candidates, six, it was a rather low number for this year's chuunin exam, but at least it also meant no preliminaries, he had better things to do than watch children trying to kill each other. His gaze landed on the smallest of them, a young orphan with a rather unfortunate, or could it be fortunate, name, Minato.

The child had come to his attention years prior as a possible Uzumaki survivor, and as luck would have it, one of his jounin had been on gate duty at the time. Aoba had recognized the potential political ramification and made certain the situation didn't hand Danzo another pawn, a trait that had made Hiruzen offer the man a promotion to full jounin, which he had turned down, sadly.

Just thinking of his old friend made his blood boil, Hiruzen was certain that the man had taken little Naruto. Even now four years later, their little shadow war was still ongoing, at least with time he had stripped away Danzo's little puppet soldiers and most of his power. With a shake of his head, he let the thoughts of the secret war fade and returned to the job at hand.

"Congratulations! You six have passed the first two stages of the chuunin exams; the trails that led you here have been long and arduous. This is but a glimpse of what you will have to face in the future as chuunin…" Hiruzen let the words flow, by now he knew the speech inside out, having held it well over thirty times in the past.

The words continued to leave his mouth fully independent, and Hiruzen considered the Naruto situation. The loss of their Jinchuuriki was, not a small matter, but not too big a blow considering they never publically had one before. The political capital he had been hemorrhaging to keep the child alive and out of Danzo's claws, well, without that flow… a small smirk played on his lips.

Two of the Ame genin dropped out, smart kids, Hiruzen conceded. All of the members from the Konoha team were chuunin material and would be promoted, and though he wished they could spend longer as genin, it just wasn't an option. ' _Maybe he could skip on the Uzumaki child?_ ' A traitorous thought entered his mind, but he quickly squashed it, the child was the top pick for chuunin.

' _Time to conclude this_ ', Hiruzen thought as the remaining four genin each drew a number. "This ends the second stage of the chuunin exams, the final stage will take place a month from now at the stadium, you may spend this month to train or relax, as you see fit, you can see your jounin for details later. Good luck to you all, and may Kami bless you."

* * *

"Well kids, you did slightly better than I expected." Suzaku yawned as he looked the three of them over. Minato smiled, even though she had only known the man for a week, she had already realized that he could predict anything with a very high accuracy, and to perform above his expectations was near impossible. "Now, for the next month, I assume your mother will help you most days Hana, and Kou, your grand-uncle will help you?"

It wasn't really a question, but both of them nodded, and Minato watched as Suzaku turned his gaze to her. "That leaves just you, Minato-chan. I will help you train four days a week, and I'll call in a favor to get some extra help for you. Kou, you get Mondays and Hana gets Tuesdays, now remember, these are exhibition matches, when up against your comrades, help them show off. I don't want to do this _troublesome_ thing again."

"Ah… Suzaku-sensei," Minato interrupted their teacher before he could go back to napping on the grassy field. "I have something I want work on for this month, I don't know how long it will take, but I won't need help right now, so where can I find you later?"

"Minato you wonderful student… I'll be at the Nara clan compound; do you know where that is?" Minato shook her head in response, she really needed to see a map of Konoha. "it's in the northeastern area, just look for the place with a bunch of people sleeping on the grass."

Minato and her teammates laughed, even Kou seemed amused by this. "We'll meet here the day before, for some last minute talks and preparation, now let me go to sleep already." With his piece said, Suzaku dropped to the grass and closed his eyes. "Shall we have a late lunch? Sensei is clearly more interested in sleep than food, but I for one need something other than ration bars. _"_

* * *

 _An in the profile_


End file.
